Poverty & Exclusion Specialist

Australian Middle East NGO Cooperation Agreement
(AMENCA) Phase 3 Technical Advisors
Terms of Reference:
Poverty & Exclusion Specialist

PROGRAM BACKGROUND:

AMENCA is an Australian aid program initiated in 2005 in the Palestinian Territories. This third phase runs from 2015 to 2021 and has a focus on supporting economic growth in the agricultural sector through market systems development (MSD).
The program itself is implemented by three Australian non-government organisations (ANGOs) – CARE, Oxfam and APHEDA - and their Consortia. Cardno manages a pool of technical specialists providing advisory services to the ANGOs and to the Australian Representative Office (ARO) of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) based in Ramallah, Palestinian Territories.

POSITION BACKGROUND:

One of the key components of AMENCA 3 and the hybrid MSD model is its ability to empower people, especially farmers and SMEs. Within this concept lies an explicitly strong commitment to youth, gender equality and women’s empowerment and an opportunity to alleviate poverty for marginalised groups who are at a disadvantage in the domestic, regional and global trade market due to attitudinal and structural barriers that impact on their ability to benefit from trade. Issues of inclusion must always be addressed if market systems are to function fairly and effectively.

Adapting the MSD models to engage or target smallholder farmers and excluded groups requires an understanding of the specific characteristics of target groups, as well as the limitations to their inclusion in agricultural markets and the range of specific reasons underlying this. With this understanding ANGOs may then be in a position to develop targeted strategies for engagement that reflect each group’s unique circumstances and challenges.
While exclusion analysis and integration work is currently being carried out within the program, methods of implementation are inconsistent across the three ANGOs.

POSITION OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE:

The Poverty & Exclusion Specialist role is intended to complement that of the existing Gender & Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor. It is a fundamental requirement of this assignment that the specialist works in full consultation and cooperation with the GESI Advisor, so that the GESI Advisor will be in a position to work with implementing consortia teams to take forward the expertise

Applications: Open Tender
Position: Poverty & Exclusion Specialist (short term local advisor)
Duration: 35 days total between November 2019 and April 2020.
Commencement: As soon as possible
Location: Palestinian Territories

Reporting Framework:

Reports to Head of Cooperation, ARO.
Works in conjunction with the international Social Inclusion Advisor.

Child Protection

Cardno is committed to child protection and safeguarding the welfare of children in the delivery of our International Development programs. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect this commitment and will include relevant criminal record checks.

Cardno is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Qualified women and people with disability are strongly encouraged to apply.

Cardno recognises the moral and legal responsibility to provide an equal opportunity

workplace by ensuring that all recruitment and selection decisions are based on the best qualified and experienced candidate who can perform the genuine inherent requirements of the position.

imparted and capacity built during the course of this assignment, to improve social inclusion results, monitoring, and outcomes.

The intended outcome of the work is that an improved and more consistent approach to poverty, gender and inclusion analysis, and results monitoring, is adopted by the ANGOs, as part of their market sector reviews, and monitoring and reporting activities. Analysis should reflect a requirement that at least 50% of beneficiaries in each intervention are poor and/or small-scale producers as well as a requirement that gender norms, patterns and risks are made explicit and visible in market studies, in the design of interventions, and in results monitoring at intervention, project and programme levels.

The Poverty & Exclusion Specialist will carry out the following tasks:

1. Train and capacity build for an improved and more consistent approach to poverty, gender and inclusion analysis, whereby ANGOs have the tools and expertise to:

• effectively and consistency carry out household level analysis to assess who is being excluded from agricultural markets, to what degree and for what reason/s;
• identify, monitor and measure the changing nature of gender, inclusion and poverty patterns that shape the market, as well as identify changing power dynamics and inequities;
• identify risks and constraints and how they can be mitigated;
• assess where the status quo in relation to excluded groups along the entire value chain can be challenged, identifying opportunities for meaningful roles for each of these groups, and the poorest.

As a result of this training, ANGOs and their consortia teams should be in a position (with ongoing support from the GESI Advisor) to determine how support to excluded groups should be structured and how relationships (such as cooperative groups) should be organised in order to shift power dynamics. (This could mean introducing a different institutional partner or exploring a different financial instrument or shifting the terms of contract agreements). In addition, consortia teams should be in a position to clearly identify, monitor and measure relevant changes at the household and at community levels, (qualitative and quantitative) as well as changing gender, poverty, inclusion and risk patterns.

2. In conjunction and close consultation with the GESI Advisor, capacity build to improve ANGO interventions, based on outcomes of analysis, by supporting ANGOs to effectively and consistently:

• adapt existing interventions based on outcomes of their analysis;
• holistically plan new interventions (and the scale up or replication of existing /ending interventions) based on outcomes of their analysis, including:

o identifying where they may successfully intervene or target to affect systematic market changes that address poverty, gender equality, inclusion, etc;
o identifying other areas of innovative intervention such as access to appropriate capital, business development, etc;
o work with AMENCA3 private sector actors to inspire and improve their gender and inclusion practices by demonstrating win/win benefits;

• manage interventions to ensure they are sustainably providing benefits to target groups, including conducting risk mitigation relating to ‘backlash’ and gender based violence;
• Ensure analysis is used to inform and adapt interventions such that systems are shifted to provide increasingly more positive opportunities and outcomes for the poor, women, girls and excluded groups.

3. In consultation with the Advisors, support improvements in program monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to determine program impact on poverty, gender and inclusion, including:

• M&E targets and indicators that appropriately include poverty and exclusion, as well as their impact;
AMENCA is supported by the Australian Government
• Data across the framework that is, as appropriate, disaggregated for poverty and exclusion;
• A common understanding of definitions of indicators and targets that allow for consistency of collection, analysis and reporting of M&E data in poverty and exclusion.

4. Any other requirements reasonably related to this work, including:

• Preparation:

o agree approach to and parameters of the work with ARO, taking into account stakeholder requirements, DFAT/ARO objectives, AMENCA principles and outcomes, relevant policy, the Palestinian context, which will further inform the scope of the study;
o inform the work through a review past and existing ANGO initiatives to inform the work, including conducting field visits where necessary and time allows, stakeholder consultations, collaboration with ARO / ANGOs / Consortia / Advisors,

• Implementation:

o Carry out in a timely manner; raising any unexpected delays with ARO and Cardno;
o Work in very close consultation and coordination with the GESI Advisor, and other advisors and specialist as relevant, throughout the conduct of this assignment;
o Work with the Advisors to support ANGOS to put systems in place to ensure consistency in data collection, aggregation and analysis, as well as ANGO systems to ensure consistency in intervention planning and implementation.

• Communications:

o Report to ARO any ANGO resource constraints or requirements that would impede ANGOs from carrying out the above. Provide ARO with reasonable solutions;
o Determine any further capacity building requirements for ANGOs, Consortia and local partners, and provide recommendations to ARO;
o Maintain strong communication with ARO Ramallah, meet with ARO Ramallah regularly;
o Debrief ANGOs and advisors at the end of each in-country mission, if required;

• Other reasonable and related tasks as determined by Head of Cooperation Ramallah.
Note: any in-country work will be based in Ramallah, with some travel in West Bank and Gaza. There is possibility of some training carried out in other regional locations such as Egypt or Jordan.

DELIVERABLES:

Training materials and evaluation reports.
In collaboration with the GESI Advisor, revise the AMENCA3 Social Inclusion Strategy to ensure all outcomes, processes and new ways of working determined during the scope of the work is documented for ANGO ongoing implementation. This revision shall be approved by ARO.
An input report will be required to be submitted by the Specialist to Cardno at the end of the 35 day input, using the template provided. The input report shall outline any ongoing recommendations for the program.

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SELECTION CRITERIA:

• Postgraduate qualification in Gender, Poverty, Exclusion, or other relevant discipline;
• Up to 15 years of experience in poverty and exclusion or related field;
• Willingness to work collaboratively with stakeholders;
• Excellent analytical skills, as well as interpersonal and written communication skills in English;
• Professional experience working with or on DFID, DFAT or other donor programs;
• Demonstrated experience with capacity building, market systems development / DCED standards, and/or the agricultural sector, as they relate to poverty and exclusion, is desirable; and
• An understanding of the Palestinian context and/or experience working in Palestinian Territories desirable.

Candidates must submit their CV, response to selection criteria (2pgs max), and 3 referee contact details.

Applications sent to [email protected]

Please make sure to mention ‘AMENCA3 Poverty & Exclusion Specialist’ in the subject line.

Deadline for candidate submissions is 28/11/2019.